Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I've posted a few other 7Up booklets from the 1960's here at AEET, and still maintain my opinion that whoever was in charge of art direction there during this era really knew their trade. And as we see in this handy "Punch 'n' Parties" guide (1962), more examples of wonderful page lay-out, bold, clean design, great colors, eye popping photography, plus super cute illustrations that truly make it a keeper. Same goes for the few bits of tremendous header key art from Mary Blake's "Party Sweets" booklet (Carnation, 1957) at the end of this post.

(I'll be posting highlights from this "Fun To Cook Book" in the coming weeks-- stay tuned!)

Monday, January 23, 2012

They're coming to get you-- ZOMBIES! Edited and designed by Eisner winner Craig Yoe with an introduction by the host of the popular "The Horrors of It All" vintage comics blog, Steve "Karswell" Banes (that's me!), Zombies follows in the footsteps of the "Dick Briefer''s Frankenstein" and "Bob Powell''s Terror" as the third not-to-be-missed book in The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics!

From the banned 1950s horror comics that Dr. Fredric Wertham of the U.S. Senate and mothers didn't want innocent children to devour comes a terrifying and timely anthology of comics of the undead... Zombies. These gruesome mini-masterpieces are hauntingly delineated by some of the Golden Age''s greatest artists: Jack Cole, Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Lou Cameron, Reed Crandall, and others at their very best. The nightmarish scripts of the unstoppable living dead will make your spine freeze over in terror!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

In addition to having worked on lots of great titles for Marvel, DC, Gold Key etc., Fred Fredericks is probably more well known as having worked on Mandrake the Magician and The Phantom strips. But today I have a sampling of his mid to late 60's strips from the excellent REBEL series created for Scholastic, featuring madcap adventures about wild teens, with hysterical pokes at the ever-changing pop cultural highpoints of the time (rock 'n roll, Famous Monsters, drive-ins, mods, hot rods...) It's fun stuff, fantastically written and illustrated, and deserves to be more well known.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

...was never so dangerous, as depicted in these mid 60's posters created by the Railroad Safety Council of America for enhancing awareness on the job and avoiding unfortunate accidents. These may be funny in a cartoon sense, but it also hurts to know that some poor soul somewhere learned the hard way, hence a need for a poster in the first place.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

More highlights from the 1963 Top Value Stamps family gift catalog, showcasing how to turn an ordinary ordering guide into something tons more fun, and in some cases involving fake moustaches-- funny! Nice use of type and illustrations, great color choices, playful set photography loaded with interesting props and models having an obvious blast, and most of all excellent design sense. (Example: look how interesting even carpet becomes!)

Monday, January 9, 2012

Highlights from a 1963 Top Value Stamps family gift catalog, the main focus here being on the super neato use of stuffed puppet people posed with the merchandise on a variety of pages (if only these were available to purchase as well, I'd definitely buy the creepy knife wielding chef!) More goodies from this catalog in our next post too!

About Me

Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, and DEVIL TALES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal collection-- except where noted.)